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Bassetlaw District Council has now opened an investigation into the cause of the incident and is looking at ways to prevent it from happening again.

In a statement, a spokesperson said: “We’d like to apologise to everyone who was involved in Saturday’s incident in Retford when an unexpected and strong gust of wind tipped over an empty market stall and struck a number of people.

“Thankfully, no one was seriously injured and everyone was able to carry on with their day.

"We’d like to thank the two off-duty nurses who were quick to provide assistance and make sure that everyone was OK and that no medical attention was needed.

"We’d also like to thank the members of the public and market traders who were very quick to react and provide help and assistance.

Retford market at Christmas (Image: Jonathan Matthews)

“We would like to reassure the public that we have robust safety procedures in place and constantly monitor wind speeds when there is a threat of high winds.

"We start to take preventative action when wind speeds of more than 30mph are predicted, however, wind speeds for that day were predicted to be around 15mph with gusts of up to around 20mph, which normally do not pose a danger to market stalls.

“Our markets team were quickly on the scene and they have spoken to all of the people involved in this incident. We are currently in the process of collating statements from those who were injured and witnesses who saw the incident.

“This incident has also been reported to our safety and resilience team and once an investigation has been completed, we will be looking at ways to further prevent incidents like this from happening in the future.

"Once again, we’d like to apologise to the people involved in this incident and those who witnessed it.”

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